Summer travel is helping fuel a COVID surge across California and other parts of the country. There are growing reports of attendees at the Democratic National Convention getting COVID-19. At least a dozen people from California — delegates, political strategists and news reporters — said they tested positive after the DNC ended last week in Chicago.
Democratic strategist Tracy Austin, who caught COVID while attending the convention, told The Times: “It was an amazing time, but the DNCC last week stood for the Democratic National COVID Convention.” The next big test for the COVID spike is just around the corner. Doctors will be closely watching to see whether the back-to-school season and the Labor Day holiday weekend worsen the surge.
Last week, officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said some data suggest a slowing of new coronavirus infections in some parts of the country.
But a dip in the summer surge won’t be obvious until there are several weeks of sustained declines — which hasn’t happened yet. Packed airports and large indoor events have long been shown to increase the spread of the coronavirus, and this summer has broken travel records. The Transportation Security Administration said June 23 resulted in the most passengers screened on a single day since the agency’s creation: 2.
99 million . Southern California airports also have reported big increases in passenger volume. Many DNC events occurred indoors, where the infectio.